Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the…Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the…

But the Question is, Whether we can do this of our selves, with grace? Or, Whether grace only enable us to do it? That distinction of Bernards is very clear: The heart of a man is the subjectum in quo, but not à quo; the subject in which, not from which this grace proceedeth: Therefore you are not to conceive, when grace doth enable the mind and will to turn unto God, as if those motions of grace had such an impression upon the heart, as when the seal imprints a stamp upon the wax, or when wine is poured into the vessel, where the subject recipient doth not move, or stir at all: Nor is it as when Balaam's Ass spake, or as when a stone is thrown into a place, nor as an enthusiastical or arreptitious motion, as those that spake oracles, and understood not; Nor as those that are possessed of Satan, which did many things, wherein the mind and will had no action at all: but the Spirit of God inclineth the Will and Affections to their proper object.

But the Question is, Whether we can doe this of our selves, with grace? Or, Whether grace onely enable us to doe it? That distinction of Bernards is very cleere: The heart of a man is the subjectum in quo, but not à quo; the subject in which, not from which this grace proceedeth: Therefore you are not to conceive, when grace doth enable the mind and will to turn unto God, as if those motions of grace had such an impression upon the heart, as when the seal imprints a stamp upon the wax, or when wine is poured into the vessell, where the subject recipient doth not move, or stirre at all: Nor is it as when Balaam's Asse spake, or as when a stone is thrown into a place, nor as an enthusiasticall or arreptitious motion, as those that spake oracles, and understood not; Nor as those that are possessed of Satan, which did many things, wherein the minde and will had no action at all: but the Spirit of God inclineth the Will and Affections to their proper object.

Nor is the Antinomians similitude sound, that (as you heard) makes God converting of a man, to be as when a Physician poureth down his potion into the sick-mans throat, whether he will or no: For it is most true, that the Will, in the illicit and immediate acts of it, cannot be forced by any power whatsoever: It's impossible that a man should believe unwillingly; for to believe, requireth an act of the Will. The School-men dispute, Whether fear, or ignorance, or lust do not compel the will; and they do rightly conclude, that it cannot: Therefore, though a mans conversion be resisted by the corrupt heart & will of a man, yet when it is overcome by the grace of God, it turneth willingly unto him. Therefore this argument, though it seem strange, yet we may say of it as he in another case, Hoc argumentum non venit à Dea Suada.